Ukraine's Tymoshenko accuses Yanukovich over "high radiation"

September 13, 2012|Reuters

* Ex-PM cries foul after hospital search

* Prison officials remove "technical devices"

* She says they measured high radiation levels

KIEV, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Jailed Ukrainian opposition leaderYulia Tymoshenko on Thursday accused President Viktor Yanukovichof using Stalinist methods against her after prison officialsconfiscated devices which she said revealed high radiationlevels in her hospital quarters.

The former prime minister accused Yanukovich, her politicalfoe, of being behind the unusually high dosages of radiation inher hospital ward.

"Only he is capable now of taking special measures againstmy health and my life," she said.

Tymoshenko made her allegations in a statement on herparty's website after prison officials carried out a search ofher hospital room in the city of Kharkiv, where she is confinedwith back trouble, and took away some of her possessions.

"Today a search worthy of the best traditions of 1937 wascarried out in my ward," Tymoshenko said, referring to thepurges of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

The 51-year-old politician is serving a seven-year sentencein Kharkiv on an abuse-of-office charge linked to a gas deal shebrokered with Russia in 2009 when she was prime minister.

She denies all charges against her and says she is thevictim of political revenge by Yanukovich who narrowly beat herfor the presidency in February 2010.

Tymoshenko said the devices had been given to her to measureradiation levels and on four occasions they had shown thatacceptable levels were exceeded. She did not say who had givenher the devices.

"I had planned to pass these devices soon to my defencecounsel for this information to be made public," she said.

"I am convinced this search was organised on the directorders of Yanukovich aimed at confiscating the devices."

Ukraine's prison service confirmed officials had searchedher hospital quarters on Thursday and confiscated "technicaldevices" and medicine of unknown origin which they found hidden.

"These objects and medicine have been handed over forexamination," the prison service said in a statement.

A Ukrainian high court last month rejected her appealagainst the abuse-of-office conviction and Tymoshenko's lawyersnow plan to challenge it in the European Court for Human Rights.

Tymoshenko would have been a major political adversary ofYanukovich in an Oct. 28 parliamentary election in which hisParty of the Regions is fighting to hold on to its majority.

The European Union has supported Tymoshenko, calling hercase an example of selective justice and shelving agreements onfree trade and political association with Ukraine over theissue.

Tymoshenko led the 2004 Orange Revolution protests thatdoomed Yanukovich's first bid for the presidency, and she wenton to serve twice as prime minister. Yanukovich has refused tointervene in Tymoshenko's case despite being urged to do so bythe West.